Meditation: The Good, The Bad, The Ridiculous

Anybody else meditate? Have you ever had strange "visions" (subconscious thoughts surface) while meditating? I meditate on a daily basis and find it very useful for stress - especially in ways that other activities just can't quite root out. I just wanted to know if anyone else out there does it.

I meditate very often. I don't have 'visions', but I have come up with some cool ideas while meditating...

I find it is a good way to relieve stress, which is awesome because I have a very stressful job and two young children (one is 5 years, one is 3 months). I also find that it is a good way to keep yourself focused during a long day. Just my thoughts.

My main reason for starting was because of stress taking a toll on my health. I became severely ill, which sucked because I was normally very active - Wing Chun, kettlebell training, and started power lifting too. Basically, I wound up with some weird infection that took almost two months to cure then found out on top that I needed surgery to repair bi-lateral hernia. I am now just slowly creeping back into Wing Chun, but meditation has been very beneficial.

I aim for 30 minutes once per day. To try and eliminate distractions I wear earplugs (for sleeping too, I'm easily distracted) and find somewhere dark. Sometimes it turns into a quasi-nap, but the brain waves are getting something healthy out of it.

No visions but some daydreams. Breath control and focus. To help focus (not following trains of thought) I work the alphabet backwards, forwards, a-z, b-y and so on to the middle, and the phonetic alphabet...alpha, beta, charlie etc etc.

I notice less ease of falling asleep if I've missed meditating during the day.

You don't need to take a class. In my opinion, you'd just be wasting your money. All you need is a private, quiet room, some candles and soft relaxing music. iTunes has a bunch of MP3s for meditation and you can also get apps for your droid, or iPhone. I am now teaching my wife and sons to do it.